


The Shattered Night

by Ereana



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - D.Gray Man, Angst, Daichi is put through a lot, Illusions, Kissing, KuroDai Bingo 2015, Kuroo doesn't help, M/M, Memories, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 13:11:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4350062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ereana/pseuds/Ereana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was meant to be a simple mission. The piece of Innocence wasn't too far from headquarters and there was little chance of any akuma showing up. It was perfectly normal. At least until Daichi finds himself trapped in a nightmare. Though that would all be fine if it wasn't for the company. A weaponless exorcist is unlikely to survive an encounter with this particular Noah.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shattered Night

**Author's Note:**

> This is for my free prompt for the kurodai bingo and with the return of dgm I had to write something in that universe. Hope you all enjoy it!

_…..the piece has been located 45 miles from headquarters…._

_Signs of approaching enemies……retrieve……mission…._

_….concerns about stability….be fine._

_“Well, well Sawamura what a pleasant trip this has turned out to be.”_

**_Flash_**

_“Sawamura-san!”_

Red. Lots of red and something cool dripping onto his face. His palms feel damp resting on something that feels like grass. Daichi lets out a groan as he opens his eyes. Pain screams in his head as he pushes himself off the ground. Had he been out drinking with Suga again? His friend was deceptively good at holding his alcohol and the last time had seen a major increase in the scientist’s blackmail folder.

Who knew that the Finder’s equipment could be so hazardous to operate?

But the pain in his head didn’t feel like he’d just gone ten rounds with a level three so it wasn’t a hangover. Instead it felt like someone had tried to split open his skull with a rusty blade. Every movement and flicker of light sends another piercing jolt of pain through his skull. What the hell had happened?

The sudden yell pushes him to stand and he moves past the pain to clear his head. A hand reaches up to his shoulder and panic flares even greater when his fingers brush air instead of the comforting weight of his Innocence. He spins around looking for it in the brown grass but there is no sign of Gungnir anywhere. The spear is gone and Daichi’s swears. The exorcist in him screams for him to retreat, to find his weapon, the soldier of God is useless without it and he’d only end up getting killed. But the cry doesn’t touch the exorcist part of him; it digs its claws into the part of him that gives tips to the new recruits, that buys Yachi sweets after she’s spent hours at her desk without a break, the part of him that still hesitates to strike the final blow when the akuma in front of him was in the body of a child.

The sky is a burnt umber and he can see a church standing tall in the middle of the field. It unsettles him, how the field seems to stretch off endless into the horizon, and unease prickles along his skin at the isolation. Where is he?

Another cry. It’s from the mouth of someone young. This time from the church. Daichi swears and starts to run towards it. Ten years as an exorcist and he still can’t resist a cry for help even if the whole thing screams trap. The fear in the cry sounds real in his ears and he’d sworn, _he’d sworn,_ that no child would suffer if he could prevent it. The church doors look foreboding in front of him as he scales the steps, one broken in half at the middle the other barely hanging on by its hinges. Chunks of stone are missing from the walls like missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Keenly feeling the lack of Gungnir on his back he pushes open the door and steps inside.

It is a child. A child hunched on the floor with its hands protecting its head, making little whimpers as the figure standing over it curses at it with a finger outstretched.

“Demon! Monster! I should have thrown you in the river as soon as you came into the world. If my sister hadn’t have been so weak than I would have!”

The child, a young boy, hunches further in on itself and sobs. Dark hair is matted with blood and Daichi feels white fury when he sees the belt in the man’s hand; the buckle with telling splatters of red. The whisper at the back of his mind sighs at the reminder that not all humans are deserving of the protection they offer, that most of the darkness in this world springs from human hearts even as they also produce the greatest good.

“Die! Die you abomination! Creatures like you are a disgrace to God!” The man’s face is twisted up in a demented rage and Daichi springs forward, he doesn’t need Innocence to deal with this brand of evil. He lunges as the belt is raised up high.

“Leave that boy alone!” Daichi yells, a little surprised that his presence has gone unnoticed until then. A surprise that only multiplies when his hand _passes through_ the bastard’s arm. “Wha-?”

The belt come downs with a sickening _shwap_ as it hits skin and bone. Daichi winces as he stumbles into the altar and hears the boys cry.

What the fuck is going on? He stares at his hands. They look real and he can feel the material of his exorcist uniform so what just happened.

_SHWAP_

“Filthy devil child! You shall not destroy my soul.”

Daichi chokes back bile and impotent fury as the boy curls up into a ball with each terrible blow of the belt. He swears he can hear something that sounds like ‘I’m sorry’ from his mouth but it’s muffled as the child tries to protect himself from the abuse. Impotent guilt crashes over him but he can’t tear his eyes away from the sight.

There’s something. Something about the boy which itches Daichi’s memory; familiarity and recognition dance tantalisingly out of reach.

The boy looks up and the feeling only grows. It transforms into a lion’s roar when the kid lifts his head up and Daichi can see his eyes.

_“My, my what have we here?”_

They’re younger, innocent, and full of pain now.

_“Well done for scratching me with that stick of yours. I might have to fight you seriously now.”_

But it’s the same shape and if he ages up the face then…

_“Critical point huh? You just get more interesting every time we meet exorcist.”_

How? It’s a human boy.

_“Until next time.”_

Daichi steps towards him. Mouth suddenly dry and heart pounding with dread and disbelief.

_Suga dropped his work on the desk and let out a sigh. “The Noah, they’re a lot harder to find then akuma. They are human, or at least part-human, so our usual methods don’t even work.” His friend‘s eyes turned towards the training room were General Oikawa could be heard victimizing a training dummy. “And as we know they were human once.”_

Daichi finds the name on his lips, helplessly watching as one of the greatest threats to the orders is beaten like a dog.

“You will die today Tetsurou Kuroo!” “Kuroo.”

The names sync, spoken at the same time, and the world shatters.

Cracks that glow a bright blue-green splinter from around the child. Daichi catches a brief glimpse of dark eyes bleeding into gold before he’s falling backwords as shards of reality break around him.

“Guahh!”

Down. Down. Down he falls through the rabbit hole.

Things that resemble pieces of glass hang suspended around him. He sees snapshots, moments, memories all of Kuroo. Tetsurou Kuroo the 2nd child, the Noah of judgement responsible for 7 exorcist deaths this year alone, over a hundred Finders, and an unknown number of civilians. The Noah who had killed Daichi’s entire team and left him for dead on a mountain top surrounded by akuma. That mission had been his making, his synchronization rate had risen to over 100% and he’d reached critical point. He still had nightmares about that time.It had also earned him the unwanted attention of said Noah who had refused to leave him alone at any battle the two were present at.

“Sawamura?”

Daichi blinks and realises he’s stopped falling. He’s just sort of floating in mid-air now. Somehow managing to turn around he almost wishes he was back in the church.

Kuroo, the version he knows all too well, is here. Floating upside down. With a perplexed look on his face; a far cry from the smirks and occasional bloodlust he’s used to seeing.

“Kuroo.” His tone isn’t as harsh as usual. The scene from before too vivid and fresh in his mind. “Where are we?”

The Noah shoots him an inscrutable look. “I was kinda hoping you could tell me. This isn’t some new Black Order trap created for the sole purpose of capturing me is it?”

Daichi snorts. “Pretty sure the only things we need to trap you are fish, a mirror, and maybe some fireworks.”

“I was admiring the frame!”

“Sure.” He pushes back the amusement of how ridiculous Kuroo looks upside down in favour of trying to find a way out. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Now there’s a surprise.” Kuroo drawls and Daichi glares at him. It should worry him that the thing about Kuroo that bothers him the most is how easy the Noah gets under his skin and Kuroo knows he can. His glare lessens as one of the floating panes flashes with a glimpse of the church.

“Were you….Where were you before?” He asks, hesitance an unwelcome sound in his voice. Kuroo’s grin falls slightly; confusion flaring in golden eyes.

“Uh, here?” He shrugs and points to one of the shards. “Woke up and saw these things, tried to touch one and it nearly took my hand of. Innocence really is such a pain.”

Trying to ignore the hatred that sunk into Kuroo’s voice in that last part Daichi tries to remember what he had been doing before the world went insane. Well, more insane than he was used to.

“There was a mission.” He rubs his head as the images start to come forth; slow at first but speeding up to a torrent. “A piece of Innocence not too far from headquarters. I was sent to retrieve it and then…”

“We had a little clash. Gotta admit you’ve become quite impressive with that pointed stick of yours. It will be a shame to destroy it.”

Daichi shoots him a glare. “We’re stuck here in god knows what and you still only think about destroying my Innocence?” The delighted look on Kuroo’s face only makes him frown harder. “No innuendos, I’ve heard far too many from you and that one was far too easy.”

“Suit yourself but rest assured I’m always thinking of destroying you-” Fed up and a little too emotionally strung out to pander to the other’s whims Daichi reaches out and cover’s Kuroo’s mouth with his hand.

“Terrible. Now how do we get out of here…” The question trails off into silence as one of the shards starts to glow. “What ne-” A bright flare of blue cuts him off and it feels like he’s passing through a warm liquid net before his back hits solid ground.

It’s night this time and the scenery not as empty. Daichi’s getting really tired of ending up in this position but luckily this time it’s much easier to get up. There’s a church again; only this one is bigger, less shabby, and it even has a small graveyard by it.

Realization stabs him through the chest, far far worse than any Akuma’s claw.

_No_

_Not this_

_Anything but this_

_Please. Please not again._

Through a dim veil he can hear Kuroo come to stand next to him. “Quaint. Did your science division happen to tell you what this piece could do because I-” Daichi stops listening, he’s barely breathing as he stares at the graveyard. The memories that he’s spent so long burying suddenly brought to life in vivid detail. Bile nearly chokes him and only the shock of what’s happening keeps his knees from giving out.

Of all memories. Of all things for the Innocence to latch on to. Why this? The child in him cries and covers its ears refusing to take it in but Daichi has to, he has to.

“Sawamura?” Kuroo’s voice sounds confused, hesitant maybe if he was in his right mind he might even jokingly call him worried. A response dies on his lips when the two figures under the moon start to speak. Their voices a perfect imitation of the own in his head.

“Hello there young boy.♥” Kuroo’s mouth snaps shut and Daichi’s shoulders droop in defeat. That voice. That tone. That smile. Even from this distance he can see them.

The Millennium Earl has come.

“Such a tragedy to lose a beloved person to that wretched God. I can help you if you want. Would you like to see your friend again?♥”

The boy looks up, confusion and sorrow warring on his face before being replaced by that cursed hope, and speaks. “I-I could see him again?” Hope overtaking everything else, common sense, curiosity, faint beginnings of acceptance. All washed away by damned hope. The Earl somehow grins even wider and pats the boy on his head uncaring of the dirt matted in his hair.

“Of course you can! ♥” He steps back and suddenly it’s there. The dark skeleton. Daichi wants to scream at the boy, to hit him so hard that he forgets this moment. The moment that has defined him from this day onwards. “This is a magical body that I created. It can hold the soul of a loved one and reclaim it from God. The only thing you have to do is speak the name of your friend and he’ll be brought back to life! It’s that easy.♥”

The boy’s eyes widen with joy and more of that terrible hope. He scrambles to his feet regardless of the scratches on his knees and stares up at the skeleton. A decision made in a heartbeat. A life forever altered. Daichi’s eyes finally close as he hears his voice, the voice of a foolish naïve boy call out the name of the one person in the world who meant everything to him.

“Ikejiri!” The bolt of light descends from the sky, boy and man watch it with the greatest hope and guilt, and the skeleton shudders to life.

“Da-Daichi?” It speaks and he hears his friend voice for the first time in 14 years. He can’t stop the tear-choked gasp too busy wrestling with the _pain_.

_A short hand outstretched and a shy nervous smile. “Are you alone too?”_

_The sky is full of stars and a laugh bubbles out as his best friend draws a dog with them._

_“It’s my job to protect you.” He tells him with all the authority a six year old can muster._

_One blanket wrapped around two small bodies. Ikejiri grumbles about Daichi fidgeting in his sleep and Daichi complains about his snoring._

_“I’m afraid your friend is very ill.”_

_“Just a couple of street rats.”_

_“No! You can’t.” He sobs on his knees in a cold hospital room. The covered figure on the bed unmoving and horrible; a fear made real._

But this is the nightmare.

“Why? Why did you make me an akuma Daichi? I’m trapped. It hurts so much!”

The boy gapes with confusion. The man falls to his hands and knees. “I-I’m sorry.” Something wet trickles down his cheek. “I am so s-sorry Ikejiri.”

There’s a hand on his back. It stabilizes him, reels him back from felling too deep into the scene in front of him. “It’s a shadow Sawamura.”

That voice. Calm and studiously blank for once. Kuroo’s words pierce through the hellish shade over his eyes. “No Innocence can turn back time. You shouldn’t kneel to a memory, it won’t beat you.”

“Happy Birthday Ikejiri! ♥” The Earl dances back with glee. “Welcome back to the world! You belong to me now and my first order is…” He spins in a circle. “To kill this boy and wear his skin as your own! ♥” Daichi watches his younger self stumble back, the hope finally disappearing as horror takes its place. Both at the Earl’s words and the dawning knowledge of what he’s done.

Too late boy. Too late.

The Earl sinks back into the shadows with one last smile. Ikejiri…the akuma attacks with his, its right hand. The boy only barely dodges the blow, one finger scraping against his cheek. Shock is beaten by survival instinct.

No more.

The second strike nearly takes his leg off.

No more.

The akuma screeches and jumps at the child.

He knows what will happen next.

The blade. The sickening schunk. An exorcist General. Ukai sr. One of the finest the Order has ever produced. An offer to a young boy stripped bare by sorrow and guilt.

“Sawamura!”

“No more!” Daichi yells and the world shatters again. The light is almost familiar now and he blinks to see the weird in-between space from before. The shards are flashing more frequently this time. His heart is beating in his ears, in time to the harsh breaths that claw their way up his throat.

“So are you in the running for most tragic backstory of the year?” Hollowness turns to rage and he turns on Kuroo with blistering words.

“You can’t stop being a bastard for even a moment can you?” Kuroo, now the right way up, shrugs and Daichi hates him for it. Hates how calm he looks like what he just saw hasn’t affected him at all. As if Daichi’s breakdown at the replaying of his worst memory was a slightly interesting book.

“Nothing either of us can do to change the past, no point carrying that pain and regret with you.” Maybe Daichi should have seen the tightness around golden eyes or how his enemy holds himself up a little straighter than normal. Maybe that might have changed what happened next.

“So you didn’t?” The words are out before his mind has time to think and suddenly Kuroo is right in front of him. Eyes blazing a hand clutching Daichi’s collar. Daichi meets the glare straight on, anger is good, anger pushes down the sorrow; it reminds him that this creature in front of him is his enemy, an enemy to the human race and one who will kill him with a gleefully twisted smile.

“What did you see?” Each word bitten out so that Daichi can hear the clack of his teeth. He chances a look at the stigmata on Kuroo’s forehead. Had they appeared after that moment in the church?

“Does it matter? You can’t change the past.” This is met with a snarl and Kuroo is far too close. Daichi wishes fiercely that Gungnir was with him because even as he scowls back he knows he’s the one who will die if they start to fight.

“My interest in you only goes so far exorcist.” Kuroo hisses and Daichi, sick of just standing there, grabs hold of the Noah’s shirt.

“Far enough to let me get past you with 6 pieces of Innocence and that nice scar on your back.”

“Mindless slave!”

“Wretched murderer.”

Heat is boiling in his gut, growing with every second he stares at Kuroo’s face. Anger. Determination. Thrill. Triumph. He welcomes them anything to block out what just happened. Kuroo has always been able to hold his attention like nothing else. On the battlefield, across a street, in the same room. He draws Daichi’s focus in without fail and it’s maddening.

Kuroo’s hand on his shoulder burns and he can feel the Noah’s heart beating through the tight grip on his shirt.

“Weak human.”

“Arrogant Noah.”

So close. When did their faces get so close? Daichi can make out individual dark flecks in Kuroo’s eyes. Their voices aren’t as loud. Both desperate to forget what they’ve witnessed and the new unwelcome understanding.

It’s easier to hate when you’re ignorant about your enemy.

Daichi’s eyes flicker down as Kuroo’s hand twitches on his neck.

Another shard lights up.

“Fuck.”

“Great.”

When the light fades Daichi frowns. They’re in a near pitch black room; a single red candle burns on a table top and he can just about make out the outline of a door. Another memory of Kuroo’s perhaps? He knows he’s never been here before. Not unless this is a memory from when he was two or something. He’s not sure which possibility is worse.

“So when are we now Sawamura? A sick day? A morning in? Perhaps a memorable night in Paris? I didn’t think you had it in you?” Wait what? He turns to face Kuroo with beginnings of unease tugging at his gut.

“This isn’t your memory?” Kuroo’s face morphs into a mirror of his. “It’s not mine either.”

“That’s not possible we were the only two there, no-one else was caught up in the Innocence’s blast. This has to be from one of our heads.” Daichi reaches up to scratch the back of his head, a nervous habit from when he was a kid that he’d not managed to break, and looks round the rest of the room. It looks like it’s still semi-forming. Almost as if it was new? Daichi’s memory of that awful day had faded somewhat in his head but the Innocence had formed it in an instant, in excruciatingly sharp detail. This one is slower.

“Maybe it’s a-”

A long groan cuts him off. He has a second to think about how familiar it sounds before the telltale noises of pleasure start to fill the room. Kuroo stares at him wide-eyed before they both look left at the four poster bed that has materialised in the middle of the room.

“Is that…”

“That’s not…”

“Kuroo.” Oh god. Oh god no this isn’t, it can’t be. He did not just hear his own voice moan out Kuroo’s name. Blood rushes to his cheeks and the Noah looks even more stunned as the scene on the bed comes to light.

Daichi. Still in his exorcist jacket lying splayed out on the bed with a very happy looking Noah kissing his neck.

“Sawamura is there-”

“Fuck you look amazing Sawamura.” Kuroo, the real Kuroo, chokes on his words as his doppelganger pushes slightly off the bed and stares down at his companion. “Always so put together. The brave leader who wants to save everyone he can even those not worthy of it.” He brushes his lips against Daichi’s in a surprisingly tender motion. “I bet I’m the only one who’s seen you like this. They have no idea how good you are. Far too good for them.” A short harsh laugh. “And for me.”

Daichi’s other self either wants to be kissed again or severely disagrees with that last bit because he reaches up and tugs Kuroo down to kiss him again. Fingers curl in black hair and Kuroo sighs in contentment. A dark grey hand moves along an exposed chest and Daichi nearly combusts when his other self _whines_ at the touch.

“Now would be a great time for you to break us out of this Sawamura.” Daichi is so embarrassed he can’t even appreciate the flustered panic spreading across Kuroo’s face.

“I already told you this isn’t my memory.”

“Well it’s not mine either. Maybe a dream you had.”

“I’ve never dreamt about this.” That is true. Even as he guiltily ignores the _vague_ thoughts he’s entertained now and then. Attraction is a fact he can’t deny, the occasional musing is more complicated.

“Well I haven’t either!” Kuroo’s voice rises into hysteria when the Daichi on the bed manages to flip their positions and grins down at the Noah a sharp show of teeth before he returns to mapping the dark skin under him.

“Then what the fuck is this?” Was the Noah blushing? Yes, yes he was and that just made everything so much worse.

“I don’t know.” He splutters, desperately trying to ignore the increasingly erotic noises coming from the bed.

“Stop this now.”

“You don’t know how long I’ve thought about having you like this.”

“Do you think we would still be here if I could?” He hisses and tries to focus on the candle rather than dying of mortification.

“Well with what’s going on in-”

“This is not from me!” A particularly loud moan cuts through the air and Daichi has never wanted to vanish as much as he does now. “It might be from you for all I know.”

“You think I’d dream of this?”

“Well I didn’t.” Their voices rise with each sentence to drown out the sounds from the bed and the ridiculous of the situation only serves to make it more awful. Exorcist training covered many things but this was not one of them. He opens his mouth to speak again when the world bursts into white light. Suddenly there’s a pulling sensation like he’s being yanked upwards through a pipe. The pain in his head bursts back into life. He closes his eyes once again.

“….up…Dai….”

“…nee…to…wake…Daichi…”

“You need to wake up Daichi!” A hand is on his face and he gasps as the weight of Gungnir in his hand registers. Suga’s face shimmers into focus above him and relief crashes over him.

“S-Suga?” Please don’t be another memory. His friend smiles and reaches down to clasp his free hand.

“I really wish you’d stop scaring me like this. I can’t tease you if you’re dead y’know.” Daichi laughs and lets himself be pulled to his feet.

It’s over. Gungnir pulses reassuringly in his hand as if it missed him and he tightens his fingers around it. He’s not a parasitic type but sometimes the spear feels as much a part of him as his own arm. He glances down at the shard of Innocence glowing in Suga’s hand and crushes the urge to throw it off of headquarters’ roof. A thought hits him and he twists around.

“Kuroo, where’s Kuroo Suga? He was here too.” Suga immediately tenses beside him and Daichi lowers Gungnir into a fighting position. He doesn’t want to fight after what’s happened but he knows his duty.

An exorcist must always do their duty. The Fallen Ones loom ever present in the back of his mind.

“You were alone Daichi. The Noah wasn’t here when we found you trapped in the Innocence’s power.”

“We?” Suga straightens and points to the top of a nearby hill. If he squints Daichi can just about make out the figure of Kiyoko standing there with a clipboard. He relaxes his guard a little.

“Didn’t think the science division was into fieldwork that much.” This earns him a grin and a playful punch to the shoulder. The normalcy is grounding, a stabilizing force against all the chaos that has happened today. “But you’re sure there’s no-one else.” Suga nods once more.

“Let’s get you back home. I want to make sure that the Innocence didn’t leave any traces of itself in you.” So does Daichi and he lets Suga start to tug him back towards the tiny village at the bottom of the slope. “Did it affect you much?”

It’s a loaded question and Daichi takes time to ponder his words.

_I saw into the past of one of our biggest enemies and gained a new understanding I never wanted._

_I wanted to hurt the man who hurt him and don’t think I’ll be able to treat him the same way._

_I saw my worst memory replayed in front of my eyes and nearly crumbled before it._

_He shook me out of my guilt and made me want to punch him._

_We were made to watch the most awkward humiliating thing together._

_I didn’t hate it._

“I don’t think so.” Lie. Lie and Gungnir thrums with something under his touch. Lie and he tries not to think of that last illusion, the most vivid in his mind. Not a memory, not a dream, but a flicker of something worse.

Hope.

He hasn't learned a damn thing.

From above Kiyoko watches as the pair walks away. She’d told Suga she wanted to make a record of the area, for research purposes, and a file would be made for examination but that wasn’t why she was here. A shadow fell over her and she closed her eyes in defeat.

“I must say you are one of the most effective spies I’ve seen in years. All the others lost control of their bloodlust after a month and revealed themselves.”

“I am a level three Kuroo-sama, control is not something I struggle with.” When she opens her eyes again they glow red and the teeth in her mouth have transformed into fangs. “I see you were not able to gain the Innocence.” Kuroo steps in front of her, two hands in his pockets and looking for all the world like a bored tourist. In his light form he could pass off as one.

“No, but one of the Generals is on his way back and I’m sure I can swipe a piece or two off of him. Besides,” Kiyoko stares as the Noah’s expression softens, staring after the retreating exorcist, “this one gave me a pretty good trip.”

Kiyoko thinks of Yachi, of Yamaguchi and Suga, and believes for a brief moment that she can empathise with him. He straightens up and the Noah of judgement is back.

“The Earl is planning to strike soon. You’ll be required to attack from the inside so start preparing yourself.” Kiyoko’s heart, or whatever an akuma has for a heart freezes, and if her lip trembles a little when she replies Kuroo is kind enough not to mention it.

“Yes master.”

It is time for the holy war to reach its climax.  


End file.
